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“Belle,” Mrs Lucas shouted across the newsroom. “Get your butt over here.”
Saving her story notes, Belle grabbed a notebook and headed toward the conference room. 'Granny’ Lucas had been working the Congressional and National news beat since her days as a runner during the Nixon era. Now editor, she tolerated fools badly, reporters who did not nail down their facts not at all, and regarded typos as the work of the devil.
As Belle always got her sources on the record, was good at grammar and made a point of running the spell checker twice, she and Granny got a long very well. Sidney Glass, who had just spent half an hour in conference with Granny and Mulan Fa, one of their investigative reporters, was not so fortunate.
Belle had little sympathy for Sidney. He was enraptured with Regina Mills, a high level Republican political consultant. Which led to him accepting her statements unreservedly. Not to mention he seemed never to have learned the difference between there, their and they’re.
“Two weeks Sidney’s been working on why Rumford Gold is stepping down as Senator Blanchard-Nolan’s chief political adviser and this is what he turns in.” Granny tossed some pages at Belle.
Skimming the story it was easy to see why Granny was upset. It looked like Sidney had simply listed every scandal that might cause a political adviser to quit as possible alternatives without having anything to back up any of them aside from some snide suggestions from an ‘anonymous’ source who was clearly Regina Mills. “Well, you can rule out going to work for her opponent. Aside from the fact that he’s been with Mary Margaret since her days on the Storybrooke School Board, nobody I’ve talked to has heard so much as a rumour about him going to work for another politician let alone that idiot running against her. And a couple of lobbying firms apparently tried headhunting him and got turned down flat.
“Also I don’t buy a sex scandal at all.” Belle snorted. “He’s divorced. No reason for anybody to care who he’s sleeping with.”
“He’s not sleeping with anybody.” Mulan put in. “That was the first thing I checked. If it weren’t for the way he flirts with you, I’d guess he was asexual. But apparently he’s just celibate.”
“We do not flirt!” Belle denied. Did they? They bantered. Each trying to get the upper hand. But that was just part of the job.
“Oh, please. There have been press briefings where the rest of us have been ready to take up a collection to get the two of you a room.” Mulan rolled her eyes.
“We had a completely professional relationship.” Belle told her primly. Admittedly bantering with Rum was frequently the high point of her week. Still it was part of her job.
But there was no rule that you could not enjoy your work, right?
“Still you know him better than anyone else.” Granny told her. “Which is why you’re taking over this story. At the very least I want an interview with him to find out the official story. A more in depth explanation than Senator Blanchard-Nolan’s office’s two sentence 'leaving to spend more time with his family, he will be missed’ folderol. Even they couldn’t deliver that one with a straight face.”
“Good luck finding Gold.” Sidney told her before stalking off to sulk. “Blanchard-Nolan’s office refuses to give out any contact information for him. And one of my sources says he’s left the country.”
Mulan was at least willing to share her notes. “It was one of my sources that spotted him leaving the country. He was getting on a flight to Heathrow. But he came back after a couple of days. Since he’s British that kind of backs up the 'spend more time with his family’ excuse. You don’t suppose it’s actually true for once do you?”
“More likely he was visiting his kid.” Belle told her. “His ex moves around a lot, but she’s British too.”
Contacting Gold proved trickery than she expected. Mary Margaret’s office manager was apologetic, but firm. “I’m sorry, Belle. We have to protect Gold’s privacy. I just can’t hand out his private information. I’ll pass along your message if he calls in, but we don’t expect to hear from him this week.”
Belle did have Gold’s personal cell number. He had called her from it a couple of times. But she had learned from the comments by some other reporters that Gold did not normally give out his personal number. Making her reluctant to take advantage of the information,
Still if he no longer had a work number this was the only way to contact him. That should make it alright shouldn’t it?
She deliberately did not think about what it meant that he was willing to give her information about how to reach him outside of work when he apparently jealously guarded it from others.
Still he did not seem put out when she called. “What can I do for you, Belle?”
“Can’t I just check up on an old friend?” Oh, dear God. Mulan was right. She did flirt with him.
Which he clearly did not mind in the least. “You can, but as you must be on deadline right now, I can’t imagine that’s the case.”
“My editor would like an interview with you. The usual. Why you left. What you’re planning to do now. That sort of thing.”
He sighed. “I suppose better you than Sidney. Or worse Fox News. I’ve a full schedule today. But I’ll have some time to talk this afternoon if you can meet me.”
The address he gave her was in Chevy Chase. At a park in an up scale suburb. The sort of place young professional families moved to raise their kids. She located him in the bleachers overlooking the soccer field.
Sitting down next to him she asked. “So who are we rooting for?”
“The Bears.” He waved toward the left hand side of the field. “They’re in brown and yellow.”
That did not help a great deal. To Belle’s eye the children all appeared to be wearing either dark muddy clothes or slightly lighter muddy clothes. “They look more like cubs than bears.”
“Aye.” Gold chuckled. “At this age they’re lucky to remember which goal is which. But they’re having a good time which is the whole point of the exercise.”
This was much more laid back attitude than most parents of Belle’s acquaintance. Then again a children’s soccer game was pretty small change compared to the level Gold usually played at.
“So why is your editor so interest in my future that you felt you had to hunt me down in the wilds of Maryland, Belle?” Gold glanced her way but kept an eye on the players.
Or rather a player. A small slight boy who’s dark curls had long since lost any semblance of order.
Suddenly Belle was pretty sure she had the answer to the puzzle. “He’s older than in the picture on your desk.”
“I’ve gotten a new picture for my new office.” Gold chuckled.
“And where is this new office?”
“George Washington University.” Gold leaned back on the bleacher seat behind them. “I’m going to be lecturing on Public Affairs and Campaign Finance Law. Possibly overseeing some of the law students in some pro bono appellate work if I can shake someone down for a grant.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem for you.” Not after all the campaign fund raising he had done. “Is the small forward out there the reason for this sudden move to academia?”
“Aye.” Gold nodded toward the boy. “His Mum got a position with a documentary company. She and her boyfriend are going to be traveling all over world. Her 'dream job’. Called me out of the blue three weeks ago and informed me I needed to pick up the boy before they left for Aleppo.”
“So you dropped everything and dashed off to Maryland.”
“I dashed off to London.” He corrected her. “I brought the boy back to Maryland. There’s a good school here set up along the lines of the one he was going to in London and the house I found is an easy commute to GWU. He seems to be settling in alright. So far he misses his nanny more than his Mum. I signed him up for this football club in the hopes he’d make some friends.”
“Can I have this on the record? That you’re stepping down as Senator Blanchard-Nolan’s chief political adviser to become a soccer Dad?” Sidney was going to blow a gasket when he found out his big political scandal was not only not a scandal but had no political implications what so ever.
Gold shrugged. “Mary Margaret was understanding. I can’t work sixty hours a week and look after a seven year old. And with her as chair of the DSCC next year the hours will only get longer.
“If you’re looking for a story,” He added, “It looks like they’re going to hire Mallory Drake to replace me.”
“I’ll be sure to include that.” Belle made a note. “But the story I’m working on is why you left Senator Blanchard-Nolan’s staff. You’re at the top of your game. Rumor is that Mary Margaret may be running for President in 2020. You could hire a nanny like your ex did to look after…”
“Baden.” Gold supplied. “I could. But why should I? Political advisers are thick on the ground in this town. Bae only has one Papa.
“And I only have one son. It’d be different if I had to work those kind of hours to feed us, but I don’t. So I’m just going to enjoy being Bae’s Papa for a while. Milah got full custody because of the hours I worked. I’ve got a second chance with my boy. I’m going to take full advantage.”
That was going to make a wonderful quote. “I’m happy for you. But I’m going to miss our sparing sessions.”
“So am I.” Gold glanced her way. “Uhm, it occurred to me after I took this new job that there isn’t much chance of any conflict of interests coming up between a reporter and a University lecturer.”
Belle closed her notebook. “You’re right. That does seem unlikely.”
“So there wouldn’t be anything inappropriate if we were to have dinner together sometime.”
“Not a thing.” She agreed. “If you were to need a sitter, my editor’s granddaughter, Ruby, has experience and might just be a student of yours. She goes to George Washington.”
“I will make a point to look her up.” Gold nodded. “Soon.”
The game was wrapping up and the little boy ran over to the bleachers. “Did you see my shot, Papa? I was the only one to almost get it in the goal.”
“I did. Very well done.” Gold told him.
The boy had kicked the ball pretty much right into the arms of the goalkeeper. Since none of his teammates had managed to actually kick the ball into the goal area though he had a right to be pleased with himself. Belle had to smile at his enthusiasm.
“Ah, Belle, this mud-ball is my son Baden.” Gold introduced the boy. “Baden this is a friend of mine, Belle French. She’s a reporter.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. French.” Baden held out a grubby hand. Belle took it anyway. He was just too cute not to. “Are you writing a story about Papa?”
“I am.” Belle told him. “Everyone wants to know about your Papa’s new job.”
“He’s going to teach people to be lawyers so they can help people.” Baden explained to her.
“He was just telling me about it.” Belle said. “It sounds very interesting.”
“We’re going to get hamburgers. Do you like hamburgers? You should come with us and Papa can help you more with your story.” Baden was bouncing up and down.
“Belle may have other things she needs to do.” Gold cautioned his son.
“I don’t actually.” Belle smiled at him. “And you were just talking about getting together for dinner.”
“I was thinking in terms of something a little more impressive than Five Guys.” Despite his grumbling Gold smiled back at her.
“As it happens I love hamburgers.” Her grin got larger.
“And milkshakes. You have to buy her a milkshake, Papa.” Baden instructed. Then he added in a failed attempt at a whisper, “Girls like it when you buy them a drink.”
“I’m an ice tea girl, myself.” Belle told him.
“Then ice tea it shall be.” Gold offered her his arm as they set off toward the car park.